Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: NHL-Teams

Lindy Ruff saw Tim Connolly get leveled, and he immediately was concerned. Not just because the Buffalo Sabres center has a history of concussions, but because the hit was hard enough to hurt anyone. It certainly hurt Connolly….

“Tim’s just got a bruised chest, so he’s going to be day-to-day,” Ruff said. “Don’t feel it’s bad, but don’t really have a handle on how much time it’s going to take.”

And there was this from Tippett: “The guys that have the most influence in this are your top players and when they don’t have trust in the whole group, then you are in trouble. And we have some trust issues right now.”

And from the players there was talk of a lack of chemistry and a lack of work ethic.

Not good signs when you are basically one-fifth of the way through the season and have won just five of 16 games.

Other than the normal seats set aside for Scotty Bowman and Pat Burns, who both live down in the Sarasota area, there are nine different scouts on the roster sheet. The teams represented are: New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Question: Who’s most deserving of a write-in All-Star campaign - Chicago’s Duncan Keith, Corey Perry in Anaheim, Tim Thomas of the Bruins or Patrick Sharp of the Blackhawks?

Bob McKenzie: “I’ll say Patrick Sharp. He was an unknown quantity in the Philadelphia Flyers organization, but not so with the Chicago Blackhawks. He has nine goals and 16 points and is arguably the team’s best player.”

John Tortorella: “Tim Thomas. He has a .944 save percentage and is one of the best competitors - if not the best - in the league.”

Starting next season (for the sake of convenience), Alex Ovechkin will pay $405,000 more per year in income taxes under President-elect Obama’s proposed tax plan than he would have under the current tax code…

But general manager Dale Tallon didn’t rule anything out Thursday, even trading Nikolai Khabibulin or Cristobal Huet if it meant improving the team going forward.

“I’m not going to mess with a successful situation right now, but they’re assets, and we have great assets (in goalies Antti Niemi and Corey Crawford) in Rockford as well,” Tallon said. “We’ll listen to anything that comes our way that makes sense for the future of our franchise.

“There are always needs. We obviously are looking at everything possible to make us a better team without disrupting our core and what we have going right now.”

Tallon didn’t deny he has stepped up his efforts to find an experienced center to play on the second line, an acquisition that would allow Patrick Sharp to go back to wing.

Didja Know Dep’t. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have a son who plays college hockey. Wyatt Russell – “Was he named after Dad’s portrayal of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone?” our James Ryan wonders – is goalie for the University of Alabama-Huntsville. It happens to be the only NCAA Division I hockey program in the South. The coach also happens to be ex-NHLer Danton Cole.

Ovechkin joined us on an NHL media conference call. I started the proceedings by asking him how much fun he was having playing on a line with Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. Talk about an offensive juggernaut.

“You’re right, we’re having so much fun out there,” Ovechkin said. “We’re just controlling the game, I think. ... It’s very cool.”

Ovechkin was less thrilled with our resident ESPN.com blogger about 10 minutes later when we asked him about the Semin/Crosby controversy.

In the midst of a wild 7-6 overtime win by Pittsburgh in Detroit on Tuesday night, Red Wings GM Ken Holland crossed paths with his Penguins counterpart Ray Shero.

“He goes, ‘Hey, the new NHL,’” Shero recounted to ESPN.com on Wednesday.

“I went, ‘Yeah, no kidding.’”

There’s been so much focus on other issues so far this season—everything from hits to the head to hits from behind to the economic crisis and its possible effect on NHL teams—that it’s easy to lose sight of an important fact.

“The hockey is pretty good right now,” said superstar San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton.

Are the Blackhawks interested in Michael Nylander? Does Jason Blake want out of Toronto? Could the Devils soon make some roster shake-ups? Are the Flyers close to signing Brendan Shanahan? Are the Wild any closer to re-signing Marian Gaborik?